(WKYT) – Former Kentucky State Representative Killian Timoney has filed a response to Fayette Circuit Judge Julie Goodman’s lawsuit seeking damages stemming from his failed petition to have her impeached.
The suit filed by Goodman in March wants Timoney to pay her legal fees. The Kentucky Senate suspended all impeachment proceedings against Goodman on April 15.
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In the response filed by Timoney’s attorney on Tuesday, it states that Goodman “fails to state a claim for which relief may be granted” since the Kentucky House of Representatives did not act upon Timoney’s petition.
The response also claims that Goodman’s lawsuit has “failed to name the indispensable parties to this action that are charged with conducting a trial of the adopted impeachment articles.”
Timoney’s legal counsel argues in the response that Kentucky’s constitution grants impeachment power to the House and the power to try the impeached official to the Kentucky Senate.
Furthermore, the commonwealth’s governing document clearly lays out a “strong constitutional separation of powers preventing the Court from interfering with the exercise of a power vested solely in a coordinate branch of government.”
Since the court lacks “subject matter jurisdiction” because Goodman’s suit presents “only a nonjusticiable political question.”
Therefore, since Timoney only filed an impeachment petition, he enjoys the same privileges and immunities for filings and statements “allied with the judicial statements privilege and cannot be found financially liable for any statements made therein, whether truthful or false.”
The last hearing for the case was a motion hour on April 15 in Franklin County Circuit Court. There are no hearings currently scheduled for the case as of Tuesday evening.